I cannot think of an appropriate title for this one...

If you did not know I helped coach the girl's golf team at Edison that past two years. This past year not so much since but I showed up once in a while. The girls are some of the best students we have on campus, everyone of them is a great student. They are kind, considerate and hard workers. It is really nice to see a bunch of girls work so hard together. They are kind of a rag tag bunch of golfers none of them played prior to high school and we had girls qualify the past two years for sectionals. They went from shooting 80-90 for 9 holes to shooting in the 50's in one season. The coaches as a group just focus on respect for the game, sportsmanship, and positive attitudes. This season was hard for the girls to maintain this attitude. One girl on the team had to stop playing because her mother had cancer. A few days before the team banquet the girls mother passed. For a sixteen year old girl this an unimaginable situation. No teenager ever considers that their parents will not be there for them. Sadly this was not the first loss for this girl. Just a few years back her father also passed. The girl is an orphan, a ward of the state. She is living with an aunt who just returned from a tour in Iraq but money is tight.

She paid for the funeral using credit cards....how does a 16 year old afford to bury their parents? The reality of the adult world crashed into this young girls life. First, the girl struggled to understand why her mothers employer stopped paying her insurance...they were dropped. Then when the mother went to hospice care she was sent home because they could not afford the cost. The final tragedy was the mother passed in the girls bedroom at 4 am. Everyday since then the girl wakes up and 4 and cannot fall back to sleep. When the coroner came to remove the body...they needed to be paid as well.

So what do you say or do? The head golf coach is a great guy and he has been collecting money for the girl to help with costs. Some people have offered the girl a place to stay, money for school costs, food, and the everyday things a teenager needs. I just cannot stop thinking about the other things she needs...like who will walk her down the isle? Who will buy her flowers for her graduation? Who will be there when she calls home from college? She definitely was cheated.

I see a lot of kids at my school, many who are in gangs, have rap sheets, and are just plain rude. This girl was one of the good ones. The type of kid that makes you want to work at a school like mine. The type of kid you would be proud to call your own. She has a lot of support and I hope it is enough to help her through this. Her life will never be the same but I hope that one day she looks back and realizes how much she is loved and cared about.

Unfortunately, it sometimes takes tragedies like this to remind us how lucky we are to have our families and friends.